
spread over the whole world; or, that he possesses only the more important
parts, but not the whole plenitude of this supreme power, or that this power
of his is not ordinary and immediate, or over the churches altogether and
individually, and over the pastors and the faithful altogether and individu-
ally; let him be anathema [cursed]."—Henry Denzinger,
The Sources of
Catholic Dogma,
translated by Roy J. Deferrari from the thirtieth Edition
of Henry Denzinger's
Enchiridion Symbolorum
(St. Louis: Herder, 1957),
p. 455, sec. 1831.
The same Vatican Council decreed: "And so We . . . teach and explain
that the dogma has been divinely revealed: that the Roman Pontiff, when
he speaks
ex cathedra,
that is, when carrying out the duty of the pastor and
teacher of all Christians in accord with his supreme apostolic authority he
explains a doctrine of faith or morals to be held by the universal Church,
through the divine assistance promised him in blessed Peter, operates with
that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer wished that His church be
instructed in defining doctrine on faith and morals; and so such definitions
of the Roman Pontiff from himself, but not from the consensus of the
Church, are unalterable."—Denzinger, p. 457, sec. 1839.
The Council of Trent (1545-1563) decreed: "Our Lord Jesus Christ,
when about to ascend from earth to heaven, left behind Him priests as His
own vicars . . . as rulers and judges, to whom all the mortal sins into which
the faithful of Christ may have fallen should be brought, so that they in
virtue of the power of the keys may pronounce the sentence of remission
or retention of sins. . . . It also teaches that even priests who are bound by
mortal sin exercise as ministers of Christ the office of forgiving sins by
virtue of the Holy Spirit conferred in ordination, and that they are of
erroneous opinion who contend that this power does not exist in bad
priests."—Denzinger, pp. 275, 277, secs. 899, 902.
5. What is the meaning of the wounding of one of the beast's heads?
At the conclusion of what period was the beast to receive the dead-
ly wound? Rev. 13:3, 5.
The word
wounded
comes from a New Testament Greek word meaning
"to slay," or "to slaughter." We might thus say that the head was "smit-
ten unto death."
The rise and decline of the papacy.
The 42 months of Revelation 13:5
is the same period as the "time, two times, and half a time" of Daniel 7:25
(RSV). Revelation 13:2, 3, 5 identify the 42 months with 1260 days (or
years). Revelation 12:6 and 14 identify the 1260 days with a "time, and
times, and half a time." Therefore 42 months are equal to the 3 1/2 times.
This is the period of 1260 years of papal supremacy (A.D. 538-1798).
In connection with this period some believe that in A.D. 538 the papacy
suddenly rose to power, and in 1798, it took a sudden fall. It is more his-
torically correct to see the papacy as achieving a dominant position by 538.
By that date it had uprooted the barbarian nations known as the Heruli,
Vandals, and Ostrogoths. "Not until the rule of the Goths was broken
could the papacy be free to develop fully its power. In 538, for the first
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